Denial is not just a river in Egypt
by Beeezie
Summary: Every year at the start of September, Scorpius boards the Hogwarts Express. Invariably, he manages to have an unpleasant encounter with Rose Weasley during the ride up North.
1. First Year Through Fifth Year

Denial is not just a river in Egypt

_First Year_

Scorpius Malfoy had never met any of the Weasleys before the first time he stepped foot on the Hogwarts Express, but by the time they reached Hogwarts, he had firmly established an opinion about four of them.

He and his cousin Noah had found an empty compartment and were just starting to relax when the door slid open.

"Oh," said a boy with dark red hair. "Sorry. I didn't realize this compartment was full."

Scorpius looked at the seats. "That's because it's not," he said. "Go on, sit down."

The boy gave a nervous smile. "Thanks," he said as he sat down.

The girl who followed him in had a face that reminded Scorpius of the porcelain dolls his cousin Evelyn used to play with, and it was framed by hair that was much brighter than the boy's. She looked almost angelic, so Scorpius was completely unprepared for it when she said in a tone so confident it verged on being outright bossy, "I'm Rose Weasley."

He was trying to sort out sure _how_ someone could manage to sound bossy just by introducing herself when the boy said, almost shyly, "Albus Potter."

"Noah Nott."

"Scorpius Malfoy."

The girl's eyebrows went up. "Are you _really?"_ she asked. "My father pointed you out on the platform, but I wasn't really paying attention."

"Why?" Scorpius asked, not sure why a Weasley's father would bother to point him out.

"Oh, he and your father hated each other when they were in school," she said casually.

"What were you talking about before we came in?" Albus cut in.

"Just the Kestrals/Tornados game we saw last week," Noah said.

"Are you Kestral or Tornado fans?" Albus asked.

"Noah likes the Kestrals," Scorpius replied. "I go for Portree, but I'll see anyone play, really, I'm not that picky. Who's your team?"

"The Harpies," Albus said proudly. "My mom used to play for them."

"How about you?" Scorpius asked Rose. She had already started to rub him the wrong way, but he was determined to at least _try_ to be polite, especially since she didn't seem to be capable of it.

"The Arrows," she answered. "Of course."

He decided not to ask why it was 'of course,' but before he could say anything else, the door to the compartment slid open. "I've been looking _everywhere_ for you," said the boy standing in the doorway. He had very messy jet-black hair.

"What's up with disappearing like that?" asked the girl standing next to him. She wore her hair in dozens of small braids. "D'you want to pretend we're not family now, or something? Because you're going to find that difficult."

The boy directed his attention at Scorpius and Noah. "I don't know either of you," he said. "First years?" When they both nodded, he stuck out his hand. "James Potter."

The girl mimicked him. "Roxanne Weasley."

They shook.

"Scorpius Malfoy."

"Noah Nott."

The change in their expressions was subtle, but there was a definite shift. "So what house do you want to be in?" James asked.

There was clearly a right answer, but Scorpius didn't know what it was. "Whichever one I get put in," he said.

"Slytherin." Noah stared at him, at if daring him to say something. "That's where my father was."

James laughed. "God, if they'd tried to put me in Slytherin, I think I'd have just left," he said to Roxanne.

She smirked. "Definitely."

"What house are you in, then?" Scorpius asked defensively.

"Gryffindor," James said proudly. "'Where dwell the brave at heart.' Just like my parents."

Roxanne tossed her long braids over her shoulder. "And mine." She leaned against the doorway. "What were you ickle-firsties talking about?"

"'Ickle-firsties?'" Albus asked incredulously. "What does that make you?"

"Wise and experienced second-years," James answered. "Of course."

Scorpius was starting to hope that he wasn't in Gryffindor, just so he could avoid James and Roxanne as much as possible.

"We were talking about Quidditch," Rose said. "They saw the Kestrals play the Tornados last week."

"Nice." James snapped his fingers. "Oh, did we tell you?"

"You know we didn't," Roxanne told him.

"Tell us what?" asked Albus.

Scorpius had not actually thought that James and Roxanne could look more self-satisfied than they had a moment ago, but he saw now that he'd been underestimating them.

"We're the new Gryffindor Beaters," they said at the same time.

"How do you know?" Rose asked, a gleeful smile spreading across her face.

"My brother is the captain," Roxanne said. "And he said so."

Scorpius was now really hoping that he was not put into Gryffindor. "Without tryouts? I suppose family connections make all the difference."

She looked at him as though he was something on the bottom of her shoe. "I suppose you're just bitter that you don't have any," she said coldly. "But no. He held tryouts at the end of last year."

He knew he probably should feel embarrassed, but he was too annoyed. "My mistake," he said, matching her tone.

She rolled her eyes at James, who looked amused. "Anyway, Al, Rose we have a compartment with Fred and Victoire. We came to find you so you could join us."

Rose got up so quickly that Scorpius was a little offended, despite that he already heartily disliked her. "Help me with my trunk?"

"Oh, that's easy." Roxanne got out her wand. "Wingardium Leviosa!" The trunk rose and she guided it out into the corridor.

"I thought we weren't supposed to use magic outside of school," Noah said.

She laughed. "What are you going to do, report me?"

James reached up to grab his brother's trunk, but Albus said quickly, "No, leave it. Maybe I'll join you later." When James opened his mouth, Albus added, "I can spend time with my family all the time, I'd rather make friends with new people. Maybe later."

James rolled his eyes. "Whatever. See you when you get sorted into Gryffindor." He sauntered out after the two girls.

"Well, she couldn't wait to get away from us," Scorpius said dryly.

Albus grinned. "That's Rose. But she's a good person, honest. She's my best friend."

"If you say so," Noah said. He sounded doubtful. Scorpius agreed with him. Whatever house he got sorted into, he hoped that Rose Weasley wasn't in it. She seemed like a complete nightmare.

"Is everyone in your family in Gryffindor, then?" he asked Albus.

Albus shook his head. "Nah, not even close. Of the eight already here, only Fred, James, and Roxanne are in Gryffindor." He sighed. "No Slytherins yet, though. I'll probably be the first."

"Would that be so terrible?" Noah asked curiously. "Everyone in our family has been in Slytherin. We're cousins," he added, when Albus looked confused.

"Oh." Albus looked at the door. "Sorry about them. They're just…" He shrugged. "They're my family, and I love them?"

Noah and Scorpius laughed. "We have one of those," Scorpius said.

Albus looked a little relieved. "What's that?" he asked, pointing to the somewhat tattered book lying facedown next to Noah.

"_Prince Caspian,"_ Noah told him. He was clearly surprised when Albus' face lit up. "You know it?"

"Those books were the only good gift my father's muggle relatives ever gave me," he replied.

"The magic's totally off," Noah said. Scorpius knew his cousin well enough to know that he was… well, maybe not exactly _testing_ Albus, but gauging how much he actually cared, and how much he was just trying to make conversation.

Noah had spent far too much time with Scorpius, who didn't especially care about Muggle books and was most interested in what the quickest possible route was to shutting Noah up about them.

"Who _cares?"_ Albus grinned. "So who's your favorite Pevensie?"

"Susan," Noah said. "She's the only sensible one. Who's yours?"

"Edmund. He's the most interesting one."

The rest of the train ride passed pleasantly enough, and by the end, Scorpius was about as sure that he liked Albus Potter as he was that he disliked James, Roxanne, and Rose.

Especially Rose.

* * *

><p><em>Second Year<em>

Like everyone else, Scorpius had been eagerly awaiting summer vacation before it started.

He had not anticipated it being so boring.

Part of the fun of vacation was being able to sleep in. However, because neither of his parents seemed to trust a 12-year old left to his own devices all day, he'd had to get up almost as early as he would have if he'd still been at school so they could drop him off at his grandparents' manor or at Noah's on their way to work. Noah's older brother, who was two years above them, was apparently considered responsible enough to monitor them.

It had been a relief to visit Albus, where he didn't have to get up at any particular time and there was always something exciting going on.

Not that his father had been entirely comfortable with the idea. Apparently he and Al's father hadn't always gotten along very well at school or something—Scorpius wasn't quite clear on the details. It had taken almost half the summer to convince him, and according to Albus (who was usually pretty reliable about these things), his father had ended up talking to Scorpius' father about it all and assuring him that Scorpius really was welcome.

Or something like that.

Even with James being consistently unfriendly and frequent visits from Rose and Roxanne, who were equally nasty, staying with Albus had definitely been the highlight of his summer. It was a lot more exciting than staying with his grandparents all day.

At this point, he could not _wait_ to get back to school.

When he and his parents got to Platform 9¾, Noah and Albus were already on the train. He hauled his trunk on and found them in an otherwise-empty compartment. They had already stowed their trunks above the seats, and Noah's book was laying on the seat next to him.

"It's 10:30," he said, feeling confused. "Any reason you're on the train so early?"

"So we could find an empty compartment," Albus said cheerfully.

Scorpius sat down. "Am I the only one who had a very boring summer?" he asked.

"No," Noah said heartily. "You know, you had to stay with me." Albus cocked his head to the side, and Noah added, "Andrew had his nose in a book for the entire summer and didn't understand why we wanted to do something _other_ than read. Even _I_ get tired of reading sometimes. Visiting you was definitely the best part of the summer. At least it was interesting." He sighed. "I wish I could've just stayed with you all summer."

Albus shrugged. "I don't see how you both think my house is so exciting."

Scorpius and Noah exchanged incredulous looks.

"You're in the middle of _London,"_ Noah pointed out.

"Well, yeah, but it's not like we can just go wander around on our own. I mean, when we're older, we can just go explore every day, but now it's only when Mum has the time to take us to do things."

"Which is still about once a week."

"And," Scorpius chimed in, "you can go to your grandparents' any day you want to play Quidditch any day you want, because they're in the middle of _nowhere._"

"Afterwards, your grandmother gives you cookies," Noah said wistfully. "I love my parents, but neither of them make very good cookies."

"We went to go see that Quidditch game, too," Scorpius added. "We had such good seats. I don't think I've _ever_ had seats that good."

Albus held up his hands. "Okay, okay. I can see how you might think it was more exciting. So come and stay more often. Nobody minds, my family likes you both."

Scorpius let out an involuntary laugh. "Except your brother."

"Yeah, well." Albus rolled his eyes. "That's James. Don't take it personally."

"You're lucky you _didn't_ end up in Slytherin," Scorpius said. "He'd probably hate you, too."

"Nah." Albus put his feet up on the seat. "He'd love me even if I wasn't in Gryffindor. I'm his brother."

Scorpius thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the morning, but by early afternoon, his stomach was starting to growl.

"I think I'm going to go get some chocolate frogs," he said, standing up.

"Yeah, I'm in the mood for some, too," Albus said. "Want anything, Noah?"

Noah glanced up from _Holes_ and shook his head.

Albus followed Scorpius out of the compartment. They made their way to the front of the train. On the way, Scorpius couldn't help but notice Rose sitting in a compartment with what looked like most of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and several members of the Hufflepuff team.

Leave it to them to feel the need to have so many people in the compartment that several were sprawled on the floor.

On their way back, they were hailed by a large group of fourth and fifth year girls. Wondering what they could possibly want, Scorpius and Albus stuck their heads in.

"Hey, Al!" Dominique Weasley called. "I feel like I didn't see you at all this summer."

"Probably because you were in France for most of it," Albus countered, grinning.

Somebody pulled on Scorpius' pant leg. He looked down. His cousin Evelyn Greengrass was sitting on the floor. "Do you think you have enough people crammed in here?" he asked her.

She grinned. "Welcome to Dominique."

He shook his head. "I'll catch up with you later. I'm hungry. I'll meet you back there, Al," he said. Albus and Evelyn waved to him as he left.

It occurred to him that there were about as many people in that compartment as there had been in Rose's. For some reason, it irritated him much less.

He bumped into someone. Stepping back and rubbing his shoulder, he realized that it was Rose Weasley.

She glared at him. "Do you _mind?"_ she snapped.

He sneered. "Same to you. Oh wait. I'm sorry. I forgot. We're all just supposed to get out of your way, because you're much more important than the rest of us."

"Pretty much," Rose said, crossing her arms.

"So tell me." He smirked at her. "How does it feel to be the only one in that compartment who isn't on a Quidditch team? What are you, the mascot?"

She laughed. "Oh, but I am. I'm one of the new Gryffindor Chasers."

Scorpius groaned inwardly. Of course she was. "I'll be hoping you fall off your broomstick in the first five minutes," he said nastily.

"It's going to hurt when you lose the Cup _again,_ isn't it?" she asked.

He really wanted to punch her. Or hex her. Or something. Could a person really be quite this insufferable?

"I'd really love to wipe that obnoxious smirk off your face," he told her.

"Try it. I'd love to see that." She cocked her head to the side. "Is someone bitter because he didn't manage to get top marks in pretty much anything?"

Scorpius sucked in his breath sharply. "We'll see how that goes this year," he snapped. "And Slughorn likes me better than you."

"Congratulations," she said dryly. "Your head of house likes you better. There's a real shock." She glanced out the window. "Sorry. It's been such a pleasure to talk to you. But I have better people to talk to." She frowned for a moment. "For example, pretty much everyone." She waved and walked away.

She was such an infuriating person.

He couldn't put his finger on why she bothered him so much more than anyone else. The marks would be a good reason, but it wasn't about them.

When he reached his compartment, he put Rose Weasley out of his mind.

She wasn't worth thinking about.

Not matter how irritating she was.

* * *

><p><em>Third year<em>

Scorpius had spent the last month of his second year dreading summer break, but it had turned out to be much more enjoyable that the one after first year. His parents had deemed him responsible to take care of himself, so he was able to sleep in any day he wanted, and the three of them had gone to Greece for two weeks at the end of July. He and Noah had also visited Albus, and one day Andrew had taken his nose out of his books for long enough to meet them and take them around London one day.

He was happy to be going back, of course, but there was a certain regret to leaving the summer behind that he had certainly not had the year before.

He knew that Noah was already on the train, and as he was hauling his trunk down the corridor trying to find the compartment he was in, a door opened and a girl fell over his trunk. She looked up, clearly annoyed, and he groaned inwardly. Of course it was her.

"Sorry," he said. He knew his tone was conveying that he was really not sorry at all.

Rose smiled. It was clearly just as fake as his apology. "Oh, it's no problem. I like bruising my shins."

"I hope it doesn't affect your playing," Scorpius said with mock concern. "I know how much you need to win Quidditch games to feel good about yourself."

"I do." She was still smiling. "But I wouldn't expect you to understand. You don't have the skill to even make it onto your team. Not that they can beat us, anyway."

He really hated Rose Weasley.

"We'll see about that," he said.

"Oh, will we?"

Scorpius had a deep desire to wipe that smug little smile off her face. "You lost half your team," he reminded her. "And your captain won't know what he's doing. We're going to clean the floor with you this year."

"I'm sure we'll find suitable replacements," she said in a tone that implied that they'd already found at least one of them. "And while I'm sure that James would appreciate your concern, he's well up for the job."

So James was the new captain. Scorpius supposed that it wasn't surprising, but he was very sure that this would only make them all even more irritating and full of themselves. "If you say so," he said doubtfully.

"I know a bit more than you do. Being a player and all."

He took hold of his trunk again. "Well, as much as I love talking to you, I have better people to spend my time with."

"So do I." Rose stepped over his trunk and continued on down the hall.

She seemed a little different, but it took him a moment to put his finger on how. Then, as he watched her walk away, it clicked.

She was almost fourteen, and she looked it. None of the changes were very exaggerated, but they were definitely there.

He did not need to be thinking about Rose Weasley like this. She was not remotely attractive.

The fact that he did not entirely believe that made him feel sick to his stomach.

When he found the compartment that Noah had claimed, he slammed the door behind him. Noah looked up from his book. "What's wrong with you?"

Scorpius flung himself back into his seat, scowling. "Are you going to spend the entire train ride reading?" He squinted at the cover. "What's a _Sabriel?"_

Noah marked his place and set the book aside. "Who, not what, but you don't actually care. What happened?"

"I bumped into Rose Weasley," Scorpius muttered.

Noah sighed. "I don't understand how you can spend so much time fighting with her."

"Because she's—" Scorpius started, feeling outraged.

"I don't like her, either," Noah said. "But I never talk to her. Usually, I forget she exists."

Scorpius stared out the window morosely. "I don't see how you manage that. We have classes with them, and she's so always such a know-it-all."

"Look who's talking," Noah said mildly. "You're a horrible know-it-all in potions, and Albus is just as bad as she is in Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"Yes, but she's more _annoying_ about it." Scorpius stared out the window for a minute, and then said in what he hoped was an offhand voice, "Did she get prettier over the summer?"

When Noah didn't answer, Scorpius looked over at him. He was raising his eyebrows. "She's always been pretty. I thought you'd noticed. You've complained about it at least twice."

"Well, more than before."

Noah shrugged. "I saw her for about five seconds when we were getting on the train, I don't know. And we both saw her less than a month ago. I doubt she's changed much. Not that I'd notice if she had," he added. "She's just not that important to me. We mostly just ignore each other. I don't know why you can't do the same."

"I really don't understand how." Scorpius kicked the bench. "She's insufferable."

"Just stop thinking about her, it's really not that hard. You spend way too much energy being annoyed with her," Noah said as Albus opened the door to join them. "That's my advice."

"Advice for what?" Albus asked.

"How to deal with your obnoxious cousin." Scorpius slumped down in his seat.

Albus sighed. "I really wish you two could get along."

"Good luck with that," Noah told him. "You need it."

* * *

><p><em>Fourth year<em>

Scorpius was finding that summer vacation seemed to get exponentially better as he got older. His grandparents had taken him, Noah, Andrew, and Evelyn to Australia in late July, which had turned out to be a lot more fun than he'd expected. Even Andrew had loosened up enough to have a good time, which Scorpius felt was nothing short of a miracle.

He and Noah had also spent a week and a half in mid-July visiting Albus, and for the first time, they'd been permitted to wander around London on their own. London was quite a lot of fun when you were just wandering around with your friends, and it had the added benefit of reducing the time he had to spend with James Potter to a minimum and eliminating all interaction with Rose or Roxanne.

This year, Scorpius was actually sad to see the summer end and to know that he needed to return to school.

He was wandering around the train looking for Albus and Damien Bell when he heard a loud chorus of laughter, and then a girl shriek, "James Potter, I'm going to—"

"_Silencio!"_

A girl backed out of a compartment, brandishing her wand uselessly.

Roxanne and James followed her. "Oh, I'm sorry," James said. His voice was completely insincere. "Can you not do nonverbal spells yet?"

Another girl stumbled out of the compartment laughing hysterically. After throwing James and Roxanne looks of disgust, they entered another compartment.

Roxanne looked around. "Oh, hello, Malfoy."

"Fancy seeing you here," James added, smirking.

Scorpius pulled his wand out. _"Protego!"_

James leaned against the glass. "Do you not trust us?"

"Let me think about it." Scorpius mocked. "No. I don't."

"That hurts my feelings." Roxanne mimed a tear falling down her face.

"They had it coming," James added. "And—whoops!"

Someone had grabbed Scorpius' wand out of his hand from behind him. He turned, and found himself face-to-face with Rose Weasley.

"I _know_ you weren't thinking of cursing my cousins," she said.

He was so taken aback by the accusation that for a moment, he forgot he was mad. Jinxing or hexing, sure, but cursing? "No, I wasn't."

She smiled sweetly. "Whatever you say." Keeping her wand on him, she examined his. "Your wand is rather thin, isn't it?"

Scorpius could hear James and Roxanne cracking up behind him. When he glanced back, he saw that several of their friends had joined them, presumably from inside the compartment.

Rose was holding his wand just out of reach. She appeared focused on it, but he knew that if he made a grab for it, he'd be jinxed more quickly than a firebolt. "Give it back," he snapped.

"Don't you think your wand could use a woman's touch?" one of the girls behind him called before bursting into giggles again. He _thought_ it had been Roxanne, but he wasn't sure.

He was sure that his face was burning. "What, Weasley, are you going to jinx me?"

Rose pretended to think about it. "It's so tempting," she said regretfully, "but I actually like Albus, and he'll be annoyed with me for _days_ if I do."

After a moment, he asked, "So can I have my wand back?"

"I suppose," she told him, smiling devilishly. "I don't have much use for it."

He snatched it. "I really hate you," he muttered.

"I know," she said. "Don't worry. I'm not all that fond of you, either." He could hear her friends making their way back into the compartment, and expected her to join them. When she didn't move, he made to brush past her. "You know, we're not just bullies. They _did_ deserve it."

He ignored her and moved on, trying to ignore the part of him that persisted in noticing far too much about her and had observed that over the course of the summer, she'd filled out in areas that the same part of him found very interesting.

He tried harder to pretend that interesting was the right word for it, even though he knew that it wasn't.

Scorpius stepped into the compartment and slammed the door behind him. The glass shattered. Before he could react, Noah repaired it and went back to his book. When Noah didn't look back up, Scorpius snapped, "Who are you, your brother? Can't you put your damn book _down_ for a minute?"

Noah glanced up. "No, I'm definitely not my brother. However, until you broke the door on your way in, I was alone, and this is a very good book." He put it down. "There. I'm laying _The Hunger Games_ aside, which is actually very difficult. This had better be good." Scorpius opened his mouth, and Noah added, "Let me guess. It's about Rose Weasley. And how much you don't like her."

"I just bumped into her."

Noah shook his head. "God, other than visiting Albus and the classes we have together, I think I managed to cross paths with her twice last year. We ignored each other. I don't understand how you manage to bump into her so often."

"You're not in Care of Magical Creatures with us," Scorpius pointed out—quite reasonably, he thought.

Apparently, Noah did not agree. "Yes. It's the Care of Magical Creatures that tipped the balance from my never seeing her and you having some nasty exchange with her every two weeks."

"Fair enough," Scorpius muttered. "But I don't understand how you ignore her. She's so—"

Noah groaned. "Because I'm _pragmatic._ Arguing with her won't make me anything but annoyed. I don't want that, so I avoid it."

"It's the principle."

"What do you care about the principle? It's never mattered before. You're a Slytherin. The principle isn't as important as what gets you what you want, and you do want to avoid her, right?"

"Yes, but—"

"Scorpius," Noah said patiently, "it's really not that difficult. _Ignore her._" He gave his cousin an assessing look. "Unless there's something you haven't told me."

"Like what?" Scorpius resisted the urge to squirm or break eye contact.

"Oh, I don't know." Noah shrugged. "You're a lot more curious about her than you are about Vera Zabini, who I think you actually hate _more._"

Scorpius considered that. "Yeah, probably."

"You're also a lot more curious about her than you are about James Potter, who I think you hate slightly less."

"Probably," Scorpius agreed again. He was uncomfortable with the point he knew that Noah was about to make.

"So…" Noah spread his arms. "Why is that you're a lot more curious about her than all of the other people in this school that you hate combined?"

Scorpius decided on a half-truth. "She's gotten prettier lately. That's all."

He was just starting to think that he'd gotten away with it when Noah said flatly, "Nice try, except that I'm not the Gryffindor, so I don't trust you to be truthful when you don't want to. If you don't want to talk about it, fine, just say that. Or be a better liar."

"Well, what do you want me to say?" Scorpius snapped. "That my hormones are making me overlook her personality?"

Noah snorted. "That was a better try, but I still don't buy it." He picked his book back up. "Have it your way, then."

* * *

><p><em>Fifth year<em>

For the first time since starting second year, Scorpius could not wait to get back to Hogwarts.

He had been looking forward to staying with Albus and wandering around London again, especially since they were given more freedom than the year before. He hadn't thought twice about accepting Al's invitation to come and stay for the first two weeks in August.

It should have been terrific. Scorpius had only been there for three days when James left to vacation with Roxanne's family and didn't come back until two days before Scorpius left. Scorpius had gone to sleep after his first James-free day with the Potters feeling quite cheerful.

Then he and Albus had gotten up shortly before noon, gone downstairs, and discovered Rose and her brother Hugo playing exploding snap in the living room with Lily. Apparently, the beginning of August was a popular vacation time, because Rose's parents had left Rose and Hugo with Albus' family while they went to South America.

Scorpius had tried to be optimistic, but after the third day, the optimism had completely evaporated.

Rose had visited the Potters during the day when he'd been staying with Albus before. She'd probably even slept over before.

This was different.

Every other time he'd seen her over summer vacation, she had been mostly hanging out with James and, sometimes, Roxanne. Even when they did sleep in, they didn't tend to hang around the house for very long. Sometimes they went to their grandparents' to play Quidditch. Sometimes they visited Roxanne's brother Fred. Sometimes they wandered around London. He didn't know what else they got up to. He didn't care. The important thing was that he typically didn't have to deal with them during the day.

However, with James gone, Rose didn't seem to be her usual manic self. She'd disappeared once or twice with friends, and sometimes she went to play Quidditch with Lily and Hugo at their grandparents in the afternoon, but mostly, she was hanging around the house.

Which meant that nearly every morning during his stay, he and Albus went downstairs for breakfast, and either Rose was already there or she sauntered in shortly after they did. And she was always wearing a goddamned tank top and short cotton shorts.

Logically, Scorpius knew that a tank top and shorts were perfectly reasonable clothes to wear around the house, particularly in the summer. Hell, he knew that he didn't think anything of wandering around shirtless at home, or even when he was staying with his grandparents. It was completely and totally reasonable for Rose to wear them around what he'd gathered was essentially a second home for her.

However, the fact that it was completely and totally reasonable did not mean that it was not also completely and totally distracting to him.

He found Rose attractive. There wasn't really any way around that. He didn't find her attractive in a removed theoretical way; his friend Claire was pretty enough, but while he could see it, he was not remotely attracted _to_ Claire.

He was attracted _to_ Rose. In an explicit and highly disturbing way.

It did not help that she was significantly less insufferable when she was chatting with her aunt or spending time helping her brother or Lily with some summer assignment. He _knew_ that she was a deeply irritating, incredibly arrogant, and highly judgmental person. She had all the worst qualities of Gryffindor and then some. That was true, whether or not she was friendly and helpful with her family.

Telling himself that did not stop him from being more attracted to her.

Scorpius strongly believed that denial in situations like this was not only warranted but advisable. After the fourth or fifth day or seeing what he couldn't decide was far more or far less of Rose Weasley than he really wanted to, he was so distracted and frustrated that he'd considered fabricating an excuse to leave.

Unfortunately, there wasn't a good way to put 'I'm so attracted to your cousin who I also kind of hate that I need to go home, take a cold shower, and scrub my mind out with soap.'

Even more unfortunately, there was a sizable part of him that was all too willing to deal with the frustration.

As he made his way down the train, looking for an empty compartment, he heard what was at this point a very familiar laugh.

He did not need to deal with this right now.

Abandoning his trunk, he ducked into the nearest compartment, which mercifully only held a couple Slytherin fourth years.

"I'm avoiding someone," he said.

They were still giggling when he stepped back into the corridor. He didn't see the bright orange curls anywhere, so he assumed that it was safe to keep walking. He found an empty compartment, and was just starting to settle in when the door slid open.

Scorpius looked up and barely managed to avoid groaning out loud. "What do you want?" he asked coldly.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Right, like I want to socialize with _you._ I was just wondering if Albus was here yet."

"Well, he's not here."

"Yeah, I'd gathered." She ran her fingers through her hair. "Look, when he gets here, can you tell him I need that charms book I lent him? I'm at the end of the car."

"I'm not an owl."

Her eyes flashed. "Fine," she snapped. "I'll just come back later."

"You do that," Scorpius said, matching her tone.

She crossed her arms, and he tried to ignore what part of her body that emphasized. "You know, Malfoy, you're a real git."

"_I'm_ a git?" he asked incredulously. _"You're_ the one that goes around jinxing people just because you can, and _I'm_ the git?"

"Yes," she said. "You can't even give him a simple message."

"You know—" Scorpius started, but a voice at the door cut him off.

"I'll tell him," Noah said. "What's the message?"

Rose stared at him for a moment, and then smiled. "Just that I need my book back. Thank you."

"No problem." She left, and Noah sat down across from Scorpius. "What was _that_ about?"

Scorpius shrugged.

Yeah, the fact that he wanted to sleep with her was definitely making him feel more hostile toward her.

Well, maybe _he_ didn't exactly want to sleep with her. She was an extremely frustrating person, whether or not he was irrationally attracted to her. Even if he didn't want to, though, his body certainly did. Apparently, so did his subconscious. He'd had more than one dream about her that he'd found deeply disturbing.

And not all of them had been while he was asleep.

All right. Maybe he did want to sleep with her.

He had no idea why he found Rose Weasley attractive. She was a pain. But at this point, he had to admit that it wasn't even just her appearance making him react like this.

This fucking sucked.

He resolved to get better at denial once they got to Hogwarts, because the very last thing he wanted was to give them more ammunition against him.

* * *

><p><strong>This is actually a prequel to Curiosity is not a sin, which is set in their fifth year and is written from Rose's perspective. (Hence this fic ending after their fifth year.) I hope you enjoyed it.<strong>

**Beeezie **


	2. Sixth Year

A/N: This was just going to be a one-shot, but then I decided that writing about the train ride to Hogwarts in their sixth might be fun. I might do the seventh year at some point, but before that I really need to finish editing the fourth chapter of my James fic.

As always, enjoy! (And if you want to, review.)  
>- Beeezie<p>

* * *

><p><em>Sixth year<em>

Scorpius swallowed a feeling of intense, uncomfortable anticipation and tried to ignore the pit in his stomach as his parents pulled into a parking spot at King's Cross station. It seemed almost incredible that at this point the year before, he'd been trying (without much success) to pretend that he didn't find Rose Weasley attractive in the least, when now he'd been going out with her for almost a year.

However, he had never ridden the Hogwarts Express with her.

He and Noah had both signed up to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas, reckoning that two weeks spent in a nearly-deserted common room and on the Quidditch pitch would be far more enjoyable than spending Christmas surrounded by people at least ten years their senior. It was not a decision he had regretted.

Then, at the end of the year, she and Albus had only taken the carriages into Hogsmeade before following the rest of their family to their cousin Fred's house to help prepare for their cousin Victoire's wedding.

It had never really occurred to Scorpius that not _everyone_ rode the train. It seemed like a constant. A rite of passage. But as Albus had pointed out to him, it was damned stupid to ride the train all the way to London if you lived near Hogwarts itself, floo powder or not, and once he'd thought about it, he'd realized that there _were_ classmates he'd never seen on the train.

But that didn't solve his problem now.

"Scorpius?"

He looked up, and realized that both of his parents had gotten out of the car. He grabbed the owl cage next to him and flung open the car door. Ptolemy gave a shriek of protest at the sudden noise, and Scorpius winced. "Sorry. I was thinking."

"Do you do that?" his mother asked in a faint tone of surprise. "I must be misremembering your fails on your O.W.L.s."

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "At least I didn't get a T," he pointed out, handing her the cage. Anyway, he'd only failed Divination and History of Magic, and he hardly thought he could be blamed for that. How anyone managed to pass those classes was beyond him. Otherwise, he'd done fairly well.

"Do you even know anyone who's gotten a T?" his father asked as they pulled Scorpius's trunk out of the back of the car. "I always thought that they were just a myth. I had friends at Hogwarts who were some of the stupidest people I've ever met in my life, and I don't think any of _them_ managed to get a T."

"James Potter got one," Scorpius told him, reaching into the

"In what?" his father asked, hoisting one end of the trunk up.

Scorpius grabbed the other end. "History of Magic."

His father laughed. "That hardly counts."

"How do you know what James Potter got on his O.W.L.s?" his mother asked curiously as they entered the station. "I didn't know that he'd become a friend of yours."

"He hasn't," Scorpius said. "Not really. I don't think he has, anyway. Albus told me." He thought for a moment. "Wait, maybe it was Rose. Well, it was one of them."

"How is Rose?" his mother asked.

"Good," he told her. Rose had come to stay with them for a few days at the beginning of the summer. He'd spent about a week before the visit feeling very nervous about the entire thing, but it had gone surprisingly well. His father had been friendly, though afterward he had commented privately to Scorpius that if he'd known when he was going into his sixth-year that his son would end up dating Ron Weasley's daughter, he'd have been absolutely horrified.

And Scorpius's mother had been downright chummy once Rose had said that she was interested in going into the Beast Division at the Ministry; the Greengrass side of his family was very enthusiastic about that sort of thing, for some reason. Scorpius couldn't really understand what was so appealing about nearly dying on a regular basis, but sometimes he felt rather like the odd man out.

At least he could always count on Noah to be sensible.

He was still wondering whether or not he should try to find Rose when he pushed his trolley through the barrier to Platform 9 ¾. The thing was, if he found Rose herself, or Albus, it would be easy enough. If he found James or Roxanne or one of their friends instead, however, it would be much more confusing. He didn't want to admit to any of them that he wasn't sure what was expected of him, but at the same time, he also didn't want to come across as not caring about Rose.

Maybe James alone wouldn't even be so bad. Scorpius had discovered over the past year that James really _wasn't_ that bad, once he decided he liked you. Scorpius still wasn't completely sure James _had_ decided he liked him, but Albus and Rose both said he had, and James certainly had been more friendly this past year than he ever had before.

Roxanne, on the other hand, still clearly disliked him, and he was very unlikely to find James without finding her as well.

He scanned the crowd, but couldn't see either Albus or Rose anywhere. He turned to his parents. "I'm…"

His mother smiled. "Why don't you go and try to find your friends?" she suggested. "We'll be over there with Daphne. I've been meaning to make plans to get together with her."

"Okay," he said, feeling grateful that she'd spared him the awkward moment of ditching them.

If his aunt Daphne was here, Noah had to be. At least Noah would be a voice of reason.

After searching up and down the platform, however, he couldn't find his cousin anywhere. He wondered if he was just missing him in the crowd; finding someone with brown hair of average height when there were literally hundreds of people milling around was no easy feat. However, while he did see and exchange a quick hello with Mr. and Mrs. Potter, he didn't see Albus, either, and there was no missing his friend's red hair.

He was just starting to think he'd be better off to just get on the train and try to find them there when Natalia Jordan appeared in front of him. "How was your holiday?" she asked, flashing a smile.

Natalia was somebody he probably _could_ ask; she was one of Rose's closest friends, and he certainly felt more comfortable around her than he did around Roxanne or some of the other seventh-years. "Okay," he said, still scanning the crowd. "Have you seen Albus or Noah?"

"Oh, they're already on the train," she told him. "I said I'd tell you if I saw you."

"Thanks," he said. "Have you seen Rose?" When she shook her head, he sighed inwardly. It would be just like Rose to decide at the last minute that she didn't really feel like riding the train after all and wanted to visit Fred instead. "What car are they in, do you remember?" He'd just find them and ask them what they thought he should do. Maybe Albus would know where Rose was.

"The second," she said, pointing to it. "About halfway up the car. Come on, get your trunk and I'll show you."

"Don't go out of your way," he said, feeling distinctly wrongfooted.

"Oh, it's no problem." She smiled cheerfully. "Where's your trunk, then?"

He decided not to bother to try and understand why she was being so helpful. Natalia was not a malicious type of person, and she had no reason to wish him ill or put him in an uncomfortable situation. Once he'd retrieved his trunk and Ptolemy from his parents and bid them goodbye, he followed Natalia onto the train and into the compartment. He immediately felt as if he'd stepped into a very strange alternate reality.

James Potter was lounging in one of the seats with his arm around Marion Thomas, and Albus was arguing with Roxanne and Tyler Jordan about which Quidditch national team was the best. Noah was sitting in a corner with a book in front of his face, but the speed with which he lowered it when they walked in told Scorpius that he hadn't really been reading it.

"Oh, good, you found us," Albus said, breaking away from the conversation. "If you hadn't shown up in the next couple minutes, I was going to go look for you."

"Natalia told me you were here. Where's Rose?" he asked, looking at the trunks already stored above the seats and wondering how he was going to manage to fit his in next to them without dropping it on someone.

"Oh, she's running late," James said. "Hugo forgot something and then they hit some kind of traffic. Need help with your trunk?"

Scorpius considered this. On one hand, it was James Potter offering to help him, and he didn't especially like the idea of taking help from James Potter. On the other, he also didn't like the idea of injuring someone while he was struggling to make it fit. "Sure."

James sprang to his feet and grabbed one end of the trunk. Scorpius grabbed the other, and with James's help, he managed to wedge it in next to Albus's and another one that he didn't recognize.

"Thanks," he said as he sat down next to Noah.

"No problem." James rejoined Marion by the window. As he was putting his arm around her again, she murmured something to him that made him smirk and flex it. "Beater muscles," he said.

Scorpius looked away, feeling that he would be just as happy to not know exactly what Marion thought of James's muscles. "I'll take him now," he told Natalia, who handed Ptolemy to him. There were several owl cages swinging above their heads, but he had no idea how they'd managed to get them up there.

"Hey, Al," he said, examining the ceiling. "How did you manage to get Hazel's cage up there?"

"Huh?" Albus followed his gaze. "Oh." He pointed to a hook above Scorpius's seat that he'd never noticed before. "Use that. The cage should just slide on. Need help?"

"No, it's fine." Scorpius climbed up onto the seat to reach it. To his surprise, the cage _did_ just slide on. "I always wondered what those were for," he said. After stroking the owl's feathers and giving him a treat, he dropped down into the seat next to Noah.

"How did _I_ get roped into sitting with them?" Noah asked in an undertone.

"I thought Rose had grown on you."

"She has." Noah folded over the corner of a page and put the book aside. "But that doesn't mean I want to sit with her friends."

"Hey, Noah," James said suddenly. "Who's the new Slytherin Quidditch captain, do you know?"

"Me," Noah told him, looking a little wary.

James grinned. "Yeah, I thought it would be. Nice one."

"Thanks."

"Have to replace anyone?" Marion asked.

Noah looked calm, but Scorpius knew his cousin well enough to know that he was resisting the urge to groan with great difficulty. He had been stressed about finding replacements all summer. "We need a new Beater and a new Keeper. Jaclyn and Ashleigh were seventh-years last year."

James and Marion both winced. "Ouch," James said. "Good luck."

"Thanks," Noah repeated. When James and Marion turned to answer something Natalia had just asked them, Noah shot Scorpius a bemused look. Scorpius shrugged.

Just when he was starting to get nervous that he'd be stuck with these people for the entire ride without Rose, the compartment door flew open. "James, Roxanne, come and help us with our trunks," Rose said, panting. Then she was gone.

James and Roxanne both rose immediately and followed her out. After a minute, she and James reappeared, carrying her trunk. She allowed him to push it onto the rack above their seats and collapsed onto the seat next to Scorpius.

"Hi," she said, still a little breathless. The train lurched and started to move forward, and she rested her head against the seat back and closed her eyes. Scorpius tried not to let her rapid breathing draw his attention to her chest; while he would usually enjoy the sight immensely, the very last thing he needed was to spend an entire day wanting to do everything he'd been thinking about doing all summer with Rose when he had to spend it in the company of her family. "Merlin, that was close."

"What happened?" Tyler asked curiously.

"Hugo forgot his wand, and then we hit traffic," she answered without opening her eyes.

"He forgot his _wand?"_ James asked, looking stunned. "How do you forget your _wand?"_

Rose shrugged. "I don't know, but he did." She opened her eyes and picked her head up. "Hi, sweetie," she said, and kissed Scorpius on the cheek.

The compartment door opened again and Roxanne walked in. "Did Rose tell you why they were late?" she asked, sinking back into the seat between Natalia and Marion.

"Did he really forget his wand?" Natalia asked incredulously.

Roxanne groaned. "How do you forget your _wand?"_

As the day wore on, Scorpius began to relax a little. True, this particular group of Rose's friends were hardly his favorite people in the world, but on the whole, it wasn't half as bad as he'd expected it to be.

After they'd been on the train for several hours, Albus got up. "I'm going to go get something from the cart," he said, working the kinks out of his neck. "Does anyone want anything?" Natalia, who was now comparing O.W.L. marks with Rose, shook her head.

"Get me some gum?" Roxanne asked. She had abandoned her seat on the bench and was now sitting on the floor playing gobstones with Noah. She was clearly very good at it, and Scorpius suspected that she'd asked if anyone was interested in a game in hopes of finding an unwitting victim in either Scorpius or Noah.

Unfortunately for her, Noah had been happy to agree because Scorpius and Albus had refused to play with him since third-year, when they'd both gotten tired of losing. Scorpius relaxed this rule on Noah's birthday and on Christmas, and Albus could usually be persuaded to play a game once the memory of the last one had faded into distant memory. This still only added up to six or seven games a year Noah could manage to convince his best friends to play with him, so he was always on the lookout for new opponents.

The two were now struggling for dominance, a sight that Scorpius, for one, found very amusing.

"Sure," Albus said, looking like he was trying to hide a grin. "Noah?"

Noah looked up, his brow furrowed. "What?"

"Do you want me to get you anything?" Albus repeated.

After a moment of consideration, Noah said, "I wouldn't say no to a licorice wand."

"Okay." Albus looked at James and Marion, who shrugged.

Scorpius got to his feet. The sun in their compartment was making him feel like following Tyler's example and going to sleep. "I'll come, too," he said. "I could use some pumpkin juice. Rose, do you want anything?"

She looked up from Natalia's O.W.L. results. "Could you get me some chocolate frogs?" she asked.

"Sure." He leaned down to kiss her cheek, and murmured in her ear, "You know, it's all going to go straight to your hips."

She let out a laugh. "Are you complaining?" she asked, her eyes twinkling.

"Never." Just as he was about to straighten up, she put a hand on his face and kissed him.

"Love you," she said when she pulled away, a smile on her face.

Scorpius smiled back. "Love you, too," he said softly.

"Young love," commented James from the corner. "It's touching, really. Brings a tear to my eye." Rose rolled her eyes and threw her sweater at him. "Hey!"

Scorpius followed Albus out of the compartment.

"You know, last year at this time I think you were complaining about how unbearable she is," Albus pointed out as they made their way down the train.

Scorpius laughed. "Probably," he admitted. "Don't you prefer it this way?"

Albus shrugged. "It's been nice to have the two of you mostly getting along," he agreed. "But sometimes you're so sweet to each other it's sickening and I wonder whether I didn't like you better when you hated each other."

"We are not!" Scorpius felt stung, but when he glanced at Albus, his best friend was grinning.

"No, not really," Albus admitted. "Once in awhile, but not often." The train swerved, and they both caught hold of the wall to steady themselves. Albus gave Scorpius a sly look. "And on the whole, I think I prefer sickeningly sweet to the alternative."

Scorpius felt his face getting red. "I don't know what you mean," he said, brushing past Albus and continuing on up the train.

Albus snorted. "Oh, please, I know what you're doing in the room of requirement. Just make sure no one can stumble across you and be scarred for life."

Scorpius wondered if Rose would be up for sneaking over to the room of requirement tonight. He didn't even care if he got detention. "I'll do my best." A girl stepped out of the compartment ahead of them, and they both came to a stop. "Hi, Claire."

"Hey," she said, smiling. "I thought I heard your voices. How was your summer?"

"All right," Albus answered. "Yours?"

She smiled. "Oh, you know. The usual." Scorpius wasn't sure what the usual was, but he was not interested enough to ask. Just as he was about to say goodbye, she asked, "So, how is it sitting with the popular kids?" Her smile was still friendly, but like most of Claire's jokes, this one had an edge to it. He heard Albus sigh.

Scorpius had absolutely no interest in indulging Claire. In his opinion, people indulged her far too often. She was his friend, but that didn't mean that he would just put up with her being a bitch. "Well, I doubt James Potter and I are going to become best friends, but they're all right," he said coolly.

She looked like she was trying to hide a smile. "How's Noah doing, sitting with the Gryffindor Quidditch team?"

"He'll survive," Albus said irritably. "We'll see you later."

She flashed a quick smile and retreated back into her compartment. Scorpius sighed. "Sometimes I want to feed her to the giant squid," he muttered.

"You?" Albus asked. "I'm the one who got the silent treatment for a month because I didn't want to go out with her."

Scorpius laughed. "True. You think she'll ever forgive me for dating Rose?"

He and Claire had spent their first four years at Hogwarts complaining to each other about how much they didn't like Rose. She therefore viewed his going out with Rose as being comparable to high treason.

"Maybe, but don't hold your breath."

When they reentered their compartment, Roxanne and Noah had apparently decided to call it quits, though neither had moved from their spot of the floor and seemed to be discussing the finer points of Ancient Runes, and Rose and Natalia had progressed to dissecting what that they thought they'd done wrong on the tests.

Scorpius groaned. "Here's an idea," he said, handling Rose her frogs and taking his seat next to her. "How about you stop thinking about it, and start thinking about what you're going to sign up for?"

Rose bit her lip. "I'm not sure. I need Care of Magical Creatures, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, and Transfiguration, so I'm definitely taking those, at any rate. What are _you_ signing up for?"

He shrugged. "Everything I need to be a Healer, and maybe Astronomy. I'm not sure I want to deal with six classes."

"Six classes aren't so bad," James said, looking away from the trees flashing by the window. "We all managed just fine."

"You want to be a Healer?" Natalia asked in interest.

Scorpius gave a noncommittal jerk of his head. "Yeah, I've been thinking about it."

"You'll have a good time mopping all of this lot up, then," Tyler said without opening his eyes. "You can start a club with Charlotte Finnigan."

"Are you actually awake?" his sister demanded. "Or did you wake up enough to make a smart comment?"

"The second one." He stretched out a little more, taking advantage of the empty space that had been left by Roxanne when she'd moved to sit on the floor.

"Club and support group," Marion muttered. "Can I join?" James stared at her, and she smiled brightly. "What's wrong, dear?"

"Dating me does _not_ require a support group," he snapped.

She patted his hand. "Of course it doesn't." She glanced at Scorpius. "Tell me if you start the club, though."

He hid a smile. James, however, seemed decidedly less amused. "Why does dating me require a support group?"

"Oh, James." He continued to stare at her, and she sighed. "Because your 'things I want to do before I die' list includes facing a quintaped, a lethifold, and at least three dementors."

"_Really?"_ Scorpius asked before he could help himself. "But that's…"

James shrugged. "Guess I'm going into the right field," he said, smirking. "Anyway, it's not just me, it's Rosie, too, isn't it?"

Scorpius pulled back to stare at Rose. "Really?"

She shook her head. "No, don't be ridiculous. _I_ want to face a basilisk, a chimaera, and a manticore." She was smiling, but she did not appear to be joking.

Scorpius looked back at Marion. "Let's form that support group," he said. She raised an imaginary glass to toast him. He turned back to Rose. "A _basilisk?"_

"I know, I don't expect to ever find one." She looked downright disappointed. "But I can dream."

Scorpius rubbed his temples. "You're insane," he told her.

"I'm going out with you, aren't I?" He snorted, and she kissed him.

He really, really hoped that she would be up for sneaking over to the room of requirement that night.


End file.
